Traditional networks, for example with an IP (“Internet Protocol”) architecture, require the existence of a stable end-to-end path between the source node and a destination node, with a sufficient bandwidth. However, these conditions are sometimes very difficult to obtain, in light of connection problems sometimes encountered between satellites and the ground, or between quickly deployable land means, the number of nodes and their potentially mobile nature. The packets that cannot be relayed by one node to another adjacent node due to a faulty link between the two nodes are destroyed.
The DTN (Delay Tolerant Networking) architecture standardized by the “Internet Engineering Task Force” (IETF) entity in document RFC 4838 and based on the IP architecture is suitable for networks comprising intermittent links. In DTN networks, the data can pause at relay nodes so as, in the case of connection to the next node that is temporarily missing (for example due to the weather or time allocations of resources, etc.), to wait for that link to be available for use again. This architecture requires the use of additional radio resources for the transmission of signaling and encapsulation information.
Also known is Portuguese patent PT104538B, which couples DTN mechanisms with radio link management methods.